hinny

hinny — noun

1. the animal you get by breeding a male horse with a female donkey; smaller than a

1.nounC2
Definition

the animal you get by breeding a male horse with a female donkey; smaller than a mule, almost always unable to have babies of its own.

Example

On Hugo's farm in the Pyrenees, two stubborn hinnies pulled the cart up the steep mountain track.

countable noun: a/the hinny, plural hinnies

Most hinnies are sterile, so breeders cannot produce a second generation from them.

typical fact stated about the species

Common collocations
  • a stubborn hinny
  • breed a hinny
  • ride a hinny
Synonyms
  • mule

    the reverse cross (donkey mother, horse father); more common and usually larger

Usage Note

Distinguish from mule: a mule's mother is a donkey and father is a horse; a hinny is the reverse cross. Both are usually sterile.

Common Mistakes

A hinny is the baby of two donkeys.
A hinny is the offspring of a male horse and a female donkey.
a hinny is always a cross between two different species, never two donkeys.
Hinnies and mules are the same animal.
Hinnies and mules are different crosses: a mule has a donkey mother, a hinny has a horse mother.
the parents' species are swapped, and the resulting animals look and behave differently.

Word family

Synonym discussion

Sense: noun/1

A hinny and a mule are both crosses between a horse and a donkey, but the parents are swapped. A mule has a donkey father and a horse mother — this cross is more common because it tends to produce a stronger, larger working animal. A hinny is the opposite cross: a horse father and a donkey mother. Hinnies are usually smaller, have shorter ears, and are harder to breed, which is why most working pack animals you see are mules, not hinnies. Neither parent species is itself a hinny: a 'donkey' is the small long-eared species Equus asinus, and a 'horse' is Equus caballus. For example, a farmer might say, 'I keep two donkeys, a mule for the cart, and one old hinny for the children to ride.'

hinny ↗mule ↗donkey ↗horse ↗

Common collocations

Nouns

  • hinny foal
  • pack hinny

Phrases

  • a hinny is sterile
  • breed a hinny

Etymology

GreekLatinEnglish

Recorded in English from the 1680s, borrowed from Latin 'hinnus' (a small mule, the offspring of a stallion and a she-ass), itself taken from Greek 'hinnos' or 'ginnos' meaning the same animal. The word kept its narrow technical meaning across all three languages, which is unusual for a borrowed term, and is unrelated to the Scottish/Northern English term of endearment 'hinny' (sweetheart), which comes from 'honey'.